Abstract

There are no re-entry regulations for workers performing different tasks soon after pesticide applications in Sweden. In practice, work is not performed the same day as spraying because of the inhalation risk for air concentration of the pesticide, the risk for dermal exposure is not considered The more widespread use of pesticides in greenhouses and more frequently harvested crops made a study on working environment after application of fungicides in such a cultivation particularly motivated. The objectives were to investigate the concentrations and declination rates of fungicides in greenhouse conditions and to examine the relationship between concentrations on the crop and the exposure on worker's clothes to be able to estimate the health risks when working in a greenhouse after application. The fungicides used in the study were vinclozolin, active ingredient (500 g/L) in the formulation Ronilan FL and triadimefon, active ingredient (50 g/kg) in Bayleton Special. To sample the concentrations of these fungicides new methods for sampling and analyzing were developed. The results showed that the applied dose of triadimefon gave low concentrations both in air and on surfaces in the greenhouse both with the low volume and the high volume sprayers. Vinclozolin sprayed gave considerably higher concentrations and declined slowly; on day one after application the concentration on leaves was in average 0.74 pg/cm2, on day four about 80% of that remained and after one week about 50% remained. The declination after low volume spraying seem to go faster than after high volume spraying. In the exposure studies the estimation made was that if workers do not protect themselves during the first harvest day with gloves and long sleeved shirts or other protective garments covering these parts of the body, they risk exposure for amounts close to the acceptable daily intake (ADI) setup for foodstuffs by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Keywords

pesticide

Published in

Rapport - Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, Institutionen för lantbruksteknik
1995,
Publisher: Institutionen för lantbruksteknik, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/125575